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Auditing - Michigan Office of the Auditor General Thomas H. McTavish, C.P.A. Auditor General The Game

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Objective of Audit Lifecycle Training The training focused on 3 key phases of auditing: - Preparation and Planning - Audit Fieldwork - Audit Completion It emphasized: - Events and roadblocks that occur on an audit. - How to handle those roadblocks. - The need for effective communication and monitoring of audit progress.

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Why Audit Life Cycle Training? The need for staff to conduct: - more effective and efficient audits - on time - within scope - within budget

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Our Training Dilemma How to present Audit Lifecycle Training in an interesting and informative way? How to get the audit staff to understand and accept the ideas and put them into practice? Solution – Auditing The Game Active participation in the training. - Staff participating in discussions. - Staff sharing their ideas and experiences.

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Audit Circle? PREP & PLANNING Discuss with ADA and MGR the direction of the audit. Decide areas for which we need to gain an understanding of the auditee and develop questions. Identify and review previous relevant OAG reports. Review prior audit working papers. Meet with internal audit to discuss audits they have completed or concerns they have in the area that we are reviewing. Obtain internal audit reports, external audit reports, or peer reviews. Prepare entrance meeting agenda. Identify individuals that should attend the entrance meeting. Schedule entrance meeting. Prepare and submit to ADA/MGR audit notification letters. Identify dates for referent meeting and MIS milestones. Obtain organizational charts. Review web site of agency to gather information about the program. Identify agency mission and goals (review web site). Obtain and review news articles relevant to the audit. Conduct research of program including Appropriation acts Enabling legislation Similar audits by other states or federal agencies Oversight bodys reports on auditee Review auditees policies and procedures. Identify program revenues and expenditures. Prepare trend analysis (expanding or declining program; population served; number of clients; amount spent). Assign preliminary review areas to staff. Meet with audit crew to discuss possible or known risks and to develop audit methodology and budget. Discuss fraud risks. Determine target date for referent group meeting. Prepare referent group meeting documentation Work on master audit budget and release dates and field work completion. Provide ADA/MGR with referent group meeting documents (T2, audit objectives memo, narrative, and risk matrix) for their review. Make any necessary changes to referent group documents. Provide final copy of referent group documents to ADA/MGR for distribution prior to meeting. Meet with audit crew and re-assess direction of preliminary review and develop possible tests for referent group meeting. Notify ADA/MGR to schedule referent group meeting, when appropriate. Update ADA/MGR on progress and direction. Ask staff about planned time off. Set up audit in TeamMate. Work on audit planning document. FIELDWORK Develop procedure summaries in TeamMate. Wrap up working papers for prep & planning and preliminary review phases (staff). Start working paper reviews of prep & planning and preliminary review phases (supervisor). Meet regularly with audit crew to obtain updates and provide direction. Have audit crew inform you or prepare document to indicate possible audit conclusions prior to completion of audit phases. Or this could be completed during audit crew updates – this is helpful for thinking about how the report will come together and also help identify areas that may need more or less audit phase work. Take note of what needs to be completed to wrap up audit phases. Determine if budget is adequate. Complete T2 adjustment if changes to release dates, field work completion, or budget are needed. Review working papers of completed phases. Keep ADA/MGR informed of audit progress and conclusions. Draft audit findings. Meet with agency staff to inform them of audit conclusions and make sure the information is factual. Meet with agency management to inform them of audit findings. Prepare the objectives, scope, and methodology section of audit report. Prepare the report glossary and instruct audit crew to update glossary as necessary. COMPLETION Take note of what needs to be completed to wrap up and turn in the report. Determine if budget is adequate. Discuss with ADA/MGR the need for a budget increase, if necessary. Identify individuals that need to be invited to the field closeout meeting. Set up field closeout meeting. Share draft audit findings with ADA/MGR. Share draft audit findings with agency and internal audit. Meet with agency management regarding draft audit findings prior to closeout meeting. Complete working paper reviews. Resolve coaching notes. Review QA working paper review checklist to ensure all documents or tasks have been completed. Complete audit review check-in documents or tasks. Prepare audit crew evaluations.

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Game Set -Up Game Board Game Pieces Workbooks Prep and Planning Fieldwork Completion

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Rules of the Game: Players take turns rolling the dice and moving along the game board. All players turn to the workbook page corresponding to the space the player landed on. All players brainstorm as a team to solve the audit related problem identified on that page of the workbook. Write the answers to the problem in the workbook.

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2345678 17 10 16 15 14 13 12 11 2524232221201918 26 27 2829303132 33 343536 37 39 4041424344 39 1 START HERE 45 Audit approvedStaff assigned to audit Prep and planning Preliminary review Communication with ADA/Manager Referent meeting FieldworkDraft findings Communication with ADA/Manager Communication with agency Follow up on agency concerns Draft report Fieldwork completed and report submitted Audit conference Report editsField closeout 38 Communication with ADA/Manager 40 43 9 Entrance meeting 6 6 1 START HERE The Black Hole Report released Auditing This is not a game. Rules Roll the dice and move along the board. Each space on the board is associated with a page in the like colored workbooks. Read the directions in the workbook and take time to discuss the problem. Everyone must stop at space 38 ! (the black hole) At this time you are assigned another audit and must split your game faces and split your dice roles until the original audit is finished. 16 24 Audit assigned to Supervisor Monitor budgets Establish objectives, scope and budget 38 Everyone MUST stop here At this time, you are assigned another audit and must split your game pieces and your dice rolls until the original audit is finished. For each dice roll, you MUST move one space toward completion (green section) and the remaining spaces toward your new audit (blue section). 18 As you begin testing, you find that your understanding of how the agency processes transactions is way off. Go back 2 spaces. How can you ensure that you have a good understanding of the agencys business processes? Brainstorm as a team. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 7 Your entrance meeting is still two weeks away. What can you do to stay productive while waiting for the meeting? Brainstorm as a team. ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________

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2345678 10 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 START HERE Audit approvedStaff assigned to audit Prep and planning Preliminary review Communication with ADA/Manager Referent meeting Communication with ADA/Manager 9 Entrance meeting 6 6 1 START HERE 16 Audit assigned to Supervisor Prep and Planning Problems Space 5 : You are ready for the entrance meeting but it hasnt been scheduled yet. What could you do to ensure that the entrance meeting is ready when you are? Space 6: You are assigned one recently hired auditor and one auditor with no experience with the agency. How do you effectively conduct prep and planning given the experience of your team? Space 9: Nobody at the agency seems to be able to answer your preliminary internal control questions. What could you do to resolve this situation timely?

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2345678 10 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 START HERE Audit approvedStaff assigned to audit Prep and planning Preliminary review Communication with ADA/Manager Referent meeting Communication with ADA/Manager 9 Entrance meeting 6 6 1 START HERE 16 Audit assigned to Supervisor Space 2: Your audit has been approved by the Auditor General. Proceed with prep and planning phase. Roll again. Space 10: Youve established your preliminary objectives and your ADA concurs with your proposal to increase the budget by 600 hours. Keep up the good work! Take another turn. Space 14: Referent meeting went very well. The group liked your audit objectives with just a few small changes. What should you do now? Prep and Planning Successes

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172524232221201918 26 27 2829303132 FieldworkDraft findings Communication with ADA/Manager Communication with agency Follow up on agency concerns Communication with ADA/Manager 24 Monitor budgets Fieldwork Problems Space 20: Agency is not providing you electronic data files on a timely basis. How can you avoid this delay and what should you do if this occurs? Space 24: You evaluate your budget and actual hours and determine that your audit is going to be significantly over budget. What should you do? Space 29: Agency disagrees with your audit findings. How could you handle these disagreements while still in fieldwork to ensure timely processing of the audit report?

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3 33 343536 37 39 4041424344 39 45 Draft report Fieldwork completed and report submitted Audit conference Report editsField closeout 38 Communication with ADA/Manager 40 43 The Black Hole Report released Audit assigned to Supervisor Completion Problems Space 33: Agency provides new evidence at field closeout meeting. What can an audit team do to avoid this situation? Space 39: Your report is held up at a report processing step for which you are responsible. What should you do to get the report moving? Space 41: Agency preliminary response was due 3 weeks ago. What can you do to help expedite this step in the report process?

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Feedback …excellent way to get everyone to participate. …much better than listening to a lecture on the topic. …very creative – a great group effort in a relaxed atmosphere where people felt comfortable participating. …the game was fun.

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Feedback …it gave me a better overall picture of the organization, my responsibilities, my supervisors expectations, what is expected of supervisors, and a whole perspective of the audit from start to finish. … informative and included all of the items in the audit process.

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Feedback …as a staff auditor, it was good to see the entire cycle and understand what is going on besides testing. This helped me to understand what I can do to help the process. …provided a good picture of how an audit is administered.

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Odds & Ends We spent about 3 hours in the 8 hour Audit Lifecycle seminar playing The Game. We compiled the answers from the workbooks and posted the questions and answers on our intranet for staff to reference. We developed The Game using Power Point. We produced the game board, booklets, and game pieces completely in-house with the assistance of our Office Services staff.

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Contact Us If you are interested in learning more about The Game contact Melissa or Allison at: schuilim@michigan.gov piercea1@michigan.gov